A coalition of 40 Irish Civil organisations are launching the Robin Hood Tax Campaign Ireland, united in the belief that it is time to make Irish financial institutions pay their fair share in tax to help clean up the mess they have helped create, and to help avoid another financial crash happening by curbing speculative trading.

The Nevin Economic Research Institute is estimating a net gain in the range of 320 to 360 million Euro each year from the Financial Transaction Tax to the Irish exchequer. Ten other European countries are about to introduce the tax while the Irish Government is NOT taking this opportunity. The campaign aims to change this Government position and campaigns for Ireland to join the other European countries and introduce a Financial Transaction Tax. read full story / add a comment

We will hear about the implications of the IMF’s behaviour in different parts of the world, and an activist’s account of attending the annual WB/IMF meetings in Peru this year, and have ample time for an engaged discussion. read full story / add a comment

TASC today released an equality analysis of Budget 2016, which analysed both the tax and spending changes. It shows that the tax cuts announced will give the greatest benefit to a single person earning €70,000, which is the same “sweet spot” as last year’s budget.

The report notes that changes announced in the Budget have to be considered in light of the fact that three-quarters of the pre-tax income gains in the last five years have gone those earning €70,000 and above read full story / add a comment

One year after the LuxLeaks scandal, a new report Fifty Shades of Tax Dodging finds that most EU countries continue to uphold secretive tax systems that are riddled with loopholes. The 2015 Stop Tax Dodging report, released in Ireland on 4th November by Debt & Development Coalition Ireland (DDCI) scrutinises the role of the EU in the global tax crisis.
The Irish chapter of the report details how Ireland announced a gradual phase-out of rules that allowed the controversial ‘Double Irish’ tax avoidance scheme, but continues to allow corporate structures operate systems for tax rulings, transfer pricing and intellectual property that allow multinational corporations to avoid taxes on an enormous scale. read full story / add a comment

All welcome to our Financial Transaction Tax Working group meeting on Wednesday 11th November, 9.30 am

Banks, hedge funds and the rest of the financial sector should pay their fair share to clear up the mess they helped create.

The Financial Transaction Tax is a tax on banks that would give billions to tackle poverty and climate change - in Europe and abroad. It would be applied to trading in bonds, shares and derivatives. The European Commission is proposing a tax of 0.1% on trading in bonds and shares and 0.01% on trading in derivatives. Eleven Member States are working to implement this tax under the EU ‘enhanced cooperation procedure’. France, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Germany are among them but Ireland and Britain have stood outside the group. Michael Noonan is saying no to its introduction

The EU has enforced a humiliating surrender on Greece. The Syriza government that was elected to end austerity has been forced to implement it. The meaning of Wolfgang Schauble, the German Finance Minister’s infamous phrase ‘we can’t possibly allow an election to change anything’ is now clear.

The scale of the brutality is astounding. To take just one example: there will be a ‘significantly scaled up privatisation programme’ to generate a fund of €50 billion. This fund will then be effectively controlled by the EU to ensure that bank debt and bondholders are paid off. Up to now €7 billion worth of privatisation has been pushed through by other governments in Greece.

The Irish government helped humiliate the Greeks. The former Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, has stated that Ireland – along with Spain and Portugal – were among his ‘energetic enemies’. read full story / add a comment

The negotiations on the proposed Transatlantic and Investment Partnership were begun in July 2013, and nine rounds of negotiations have taken place since. The tenth round is due to take place in Brussels on 13 -17 July. The People’s Movement will be holding a demonstration against TTIP at 1 p.m. on Wednesday 15 July outside the EU Parliament offices in Dublin to mark the tenth round of negotiations. All are welcome. Please put it in your diary. read full story / add a comment

The European Parliament is about to make another attempt to pass a resolution on the EU-US trade deal TTIP this Wednesday. Ahead of this critical vote, an alliance of over 480 organisations from across Europe is calling on MEPs to take the strong resistance from citizens seriously. 2.3 million Europeans have signed a self-organised European Citizens' Initiative that calls for an end of the TTIP negotiations. All MEPs today received the following letter in their native language, signed by the Stop TTIP organisations in their respective country: read full story / add a comment

The drip feed of questionable deals carried out by NAMA is well under way. Regularly now, we see information reaching the public domain whereby NAMA have sold stressed assets at less than their real value and the purchasers are turning them over within 2 years, at profit ranging from 30% to 40%/ The purchasers are mostly foreign investment funds – ‘vulture funds ‘ – who have picked on the carcass of the stressed Irish property market. Many of them have retained the assets, and become serious players in the residential rental market in Ireland, especially Dublin, and have developed a controlling influence, managing to drive up rents astronomically in our capital city. This all doesn’t make them evil people – they just do what they do, it’s called unfettered Capitalism - our problem as Irish citizens is that our Government have allowed a situation to develop whereby the vulture funds win and the Irish tax payer loses. And our present Neo Liberal Government think that this is all fine. I believe otherwise. Here’s my Leader’s Questions with Taoiseach Enda Kenny this week, who knows that all is not well. - read full story / add a comment

The EU's negotiating team for pharmaceuticals, medical devices and cosmetics in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) met with civil society organisations inside the Commission on Wednesday (27 May) to defend the inclusion of the health sector in the trade deal.

In Europe, universal healthcare is a source of national pride, as well as a constant subject of debate. So, the inclusion of a healthcare chapter in TTIP has triggered heated reactions from health NGOs and trade unions, who are wary of an American-style liberalisation of a heavily regulated sector. read full story / add a comment

The United Nations, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and finance ministries are meeting in New York to finalize an agreement for the Financing for Development Conference (FfD) to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in July. read full story / add a comment

The current focus on low pay and precarious work practices has set the scene for the work of the recently formed Low Pay Commission in the Republic of Ireland. One aspect of their work will be to look at the number of individuals trapped in low pay, many of whom are dependent on the social protection system to underpin their ability to make ends meet read full story / add a comment

The IMF issued a report today showing that debt and human crisis are driving inequality and financial instability. Jubilee USA Network calls for the establishment of structures to stabilize the global financial system and to protect low-income communities. The Ebola epidemic clearly demonstrates the need for these structures. read full story / add a comment